Bringing vision back to blind people is life-changing. With the help of Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, blind people may restore their vision.

Developed by Second Sight company, Argus II is the world’s first approved “vision-restoring” device for blind people. This surgically implanted assistive device is designed for people who have lost their sight due to degenerative eye diseases, such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. While the light-sensitive cells in the patients’ eyes are killed by the diseases, Argus II can skip over those cells and transfer visual signals to the brain.

Before using the device, patients will need to receive a surgery to implant a small electronic assistive device in their eyes. About one week later, the patients return to the hospital to get their electrodes tuned. They also obtain a special pair of glasses attached with a tiny video camera that feeds the brain with visual information. Basically, when a patient wears the glasses, the camera captures images and convert them to electrical signal, which is processed by a portable unit and then wirelessly delivered to the retina in the eyes. Finally, the brain recognizes the electrical stimulation as spots of light and assemble them into an image.

Argus II can only help blind people who have an intact retina. Robert Greenberg, the president and CEO of Second Sight, says that the company is working on a new implant that bypasses even the retinal layer, and implants electrodes directly onto the visual region of the brain.

According to a clinical study, most participants performed basic activities better with Argus II than without it. Although the view is blurred and without color, patients can detect the light as well as the location or movement of an object. For those who have been suffering from blindness for years, simply seeing shapes again helps them to live a better life.

image courtesy of pixabay.com: http://pixabay.com/en/eye-color-iris-view-human-229957/